


for the liveliness of your mind

by CallieB



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, First Kiss, Flirting While Fighting, Harringrove Week of Love, Harringrove for Australia (Stranger Things), M/M, Post-Season/Series 03, The Upside Down
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22743997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallieB/pseuds/CallieB
Summary: Billy barks out a laugh, because now it makes sense. “You’ve got some stupid-ass plan that’s going to get you killed, haven’t you?” he guesses.“And you think we’re the only ones crazy enough to help you with it,” Steve finishes.For a moment, there’s silence. Then, as though gearing himself up, Dustin says: “Yeah. So are you in?”“Tell us the plan,” Billy says.They tell him the plan.“That sucks,” Steve says.“Sure does,” Billy agrees. “Let’s get going.”
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 19
Kudos: 281
Collections: Harringrove Week of Love, harringrove for Australia





	for the liveliness of your mind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [keziahrain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/keziahrain/gifts).



> For the lovely [keziahrain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/keziahrain/pseuds/keziahrain) who gave me another Week of Love prompt - thank you so much for thinking about Australia! I really enjoyed writing this so I hope you like it too.
> 
> The concept, as ever, came from a discussion on the Discord like forever ago - I can't remember who was talking about it with me, but thank you generally to everyone over there for being awesome!

“He’s alive,” El says, with her usual air of extreme drama. The curly-haired kid lets out an extended gasp.

“Who’s alive?” Billy says blankly.

Everyone stares at him. “Hopper!” Mike says, like this should be obvious.

The only thing Billy knows about the late sheriff is that he once hauled Billy home after the fight at the Byers’ place a couple of years ago. Sure, he’s been filled in along the way, but it’s not like this pronouncement _means_ much to him. Beside him, Steve looks equally bewildered.

“Okay,” Steve says.

“So we have to rescue him,” Max says impatiently. Billy and Steve are obviously being slow.

“Why,” Billy says, “are you telling us?”

At this, there’s a pause. The kids look between each other somewhat guiltily. Will says: “We told mom, and she said we can’t go after him.”

“Why not?” Steve asks.

“She’s too sad,” Will says, which makes Billy’s chest do something funny. He owes quite a lot to Joyce Byers. She’s the reason he has somewhere to go now, if his dad becomes too much. “I think she doesn’t want to think about the possibility he’s okay, in case she’s wrong.”

El makes a restless, impatient sound. “He’s alive,” she says. “But he’s not okay. He’s in the Upside Down.”

Thanks to Max and El, Billy has a much greater understanding now of what that means. “Okay,” he says again. “So Mrs Byers is out. What about your brother?” He glances at Mike. “Or your sister?”

“They’re at college,” Mike says, like that explains everything.

Billy barks out a laugh, because now it makes sense. “You’ve got some stupid-ass plan that’s going to get you killed, haven’t you?” he guesses. 

“And you think we’re the only ones crazy enough to help you with it,” Steve finishes.

For a moment, there’s silence. Then, as though gearing himself up, Dustin says: “Yeah. So are you in?”

“Tell us the plan,” Billy says.

They tell him the plan.

“That sucks,” Steve says.

“Sure does,” Billy agrees. “Let’s get going.”

*

The first part of the plan involves El intentionally ripping a hole in the universe. Or something. Having spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to shut the portal to the Upside Down, now apparently they’re going to open it up again.

The second part of the plan is even crazier.

“You’re not coming with us,” Steve tells El.

She gapes at him. “What? You need me! He’s my dad!”

“And what happens if it goes wrong? You have to shut the portal so the Mind Flayer doesn’t get out again,” Billy tells her firmly. “Moron.”

“ _Don’t_ speak to her like that!” Steve says.

Billy rolls his eyes. “Don’t tell me what to—”

“Not the time, dingus one and dingus two.” They roped Robin in for the simple reason that she’s crazier than Billy and Steve put together, but also a hell of a lot smarter. “Can we focus on the plan, please?”

“I want to come—” El demands, but Robin holds up an impatient hand, and she subsides.

“I’m going in alone,” Steve says. “No arguments.”

There’s an explosion of arguments. “No way!” Dustin exclaims.

“Yeah, you can’t go without us, it was our idea!” Lucas says.

“What if you get into trouble?”

“What if you need help?”

“What if—”

Billy bangs his hand on the table. “Uh, excuse me? No underage kids are coming on a death-mission to the Upside Down, so you can all pipe down. I’ll go with Harrington.”

“I don’t need _you_ ,” Steve grumbles.

“And out of the two of us, who’s faced off the Mind Flayer once already?” Billy counters.

Steve flushes. There’s not much he can say to that.

“Enough,” Robin says sternly. “Billy and Steve are going in. I’m staying out to coordinate the children—”

“We’re not _children_ ,” Max interrupts.

“To coordinate the unruly adolescents,” Robin amends, glaring at Max. “El opens the gate, everyone else sits tight.”

El glares right back, arms folded. “I’m going,” she states flatly.

“No, you’re really not,” Billy assures her.

“Don’t tell me what to do!” she half-yells at him.

He crosses his own arms and leans towards her. “I’ll tell you anything I damn well want—”

“Don’t _talk_ to her like that!” Harrington exclaims.

“No, he’s right,” Max says. “You can’t go, El. No one else can fight off the Mind Flayer if he starts coming through. No one else can close the portal.”

El pulls a complicated face, angry and resigned at the same time. “Well, someone should go with them,” she says.

“I’ll go,” Max says.

“Absolutely fucking not,” Billy says.

“No kids,” Steve says, in agreement with Billy for once. “No one under the age of eighteen. Joyce would never forgive me.”

“ _Fine_!” Max says angrily.

Steve looks at her sternly. “Yeah, fine,” he says, in some lame attempt at authority. “And don’t you forget it.”

*

“We look ridiculous,” Billy complains, not for the first time.

“ _You_ look ridiculous,” Steve mumbles, which is stupid, because they both look the same. When Mrs Byers and Hopper had gone into the Upside Down to rescue Will, they’d been given insulating suits by the shady government organisation responsible for starting all this goddamn drama. The kids, needless to say, don’t have access to anything so official.

That’s how Steve and Billy have wound up wearing their longest clothes, with several layers to try and ensure that as little bare skin is exposed to the weird atmosphere of the other dimension as possible. They have tape around their wrists and ankles, attaching their gloves and socks to their other clothes, and a massive handkerchief to wear over their faces.

“Turtleneck,” Steve whines, tugging at the offending article. “Will survived for days without all this shit.”

Mike throws him a scathing look. “Barely,” he says, accurately.

“Stop complaining, Harrington,” Billy says.

“Don’t be an asshole, Hargrove,” Steve counters.

“Shut your—”

“Stop bickering, children,” Robin interrupts. She’s holding a pair of large goggles that look vaguely like the safety glasses they used to use in chemistry classes. “Put these on.”

Billy just looks at her. “No fucking way,” he says flatly.

“Stop complaining, Hargrove,” Steve mimics.

Billy puts on the goddamn goggles. 

They’re in the mall, or more accurately, in the space where the mall used to be. Almost a year later, it’s still a building site, with the defaced store fronts crumbling around them; apparently the government has done its part in holding up the renovations until they can be certain there’s nothing dangerous here anymore. Their experiments concluded, the building company has taken over, but with the departure of Mayor Kline, there’s no money to build a mall anymore. So here it sits, an empty, decimated reminder of the battle that claimed so many lives.

Billy was lucky to escape with his. He tries not to think about it.

“We have to get down to the lower levels before El opens the portal,” Dustin says. He has the air of the educator about him; Billy rolls his eyes behind his goggles. “We want to be as close to where Hopper went in as possible.”

“Why?” Billy argues. “He’s probably moved in the Upside Down, right? Why would he stay underground?”

Steve folds his arms. “Yeah, he’d go somewhere familiar, wouldn’t he?”

“You could have said this before we came here,” Lucas gripes.

“Not our plan, asshole,” Billy says.

“ _Don’t_ —” Steve starts, and then shuts his mouth with a click when he sees that Billy’s laughing at him. It’s just too easy to wind him up; say the slightest word to any of the kids and you’re halfway there.

Robin hums. “He might stay close so we can find him,” she muses. “But I don’t think he’d stay underground.”

“Can’t you find him?” Steve asks El. “Didn’t you do that for Will?”

She stares at him, unimpressed, and Mike says: “We built a sensory deprivation tank at the school. It took us hours, and it was really hard for El.”

“My powers,” El interrupts. “They’re weaker now. I don’t know why. I can’t find him.” 

The frustration is clear in her voice. Billy says snidely to Steve: “Don’t you think if she could do that again she would?”

“Shut up,” Steve snaps back. “What about the cabin?”

“My powers,” El repeats, “are _weaker_.” She huffs. “I can’t open a door anywhere. I need to be near a weak spot, where it’s easier. Somewhere it’s been opened before.”

“Okay,” Dustin says, scratching his head. “So it’s here, the school, the lab… where else?”

Billy shifts. “The Byers’ old place,” he suggests.

“The woods,” Lucas says. “But we don’t know exactly where.”

“Well, I think we stick here,” Robin says decisively. “This is the most recent place, and it’s where Hopper went through, if he did go through—”

El moves forward threateningly. “He _did_.”

“So we stick here,” Robin goes on smoothly, as though El hasn’t spoken. “He’s sensible, he knows we’d look here first. If he’s not here, go to the cabin first. That’s his home, that’s where he’d feel safe.”

“He’d never go to the lab,” Dustin puts in.

“I want to go,” El says plaintively.

Billy just looks at her. “Not happening, kid.”

She gives him a hard, searching look. “Find him,” she commands.

He bends down and puts his hands on her shoulders. Most of the time he’s an asshole, but there are moments - moments with El or Max, no one else matters enough - where he can step up. This is one of them.

“I’m going to find him,” he tells her. “I promise.”

*

“This,” Billy informs Steve, “is disgusting.”

And it is. Opening the portal took time, and energy, and there had been a period when they weren’t sure El was going to be able to manage it - but then, swaying on her feet, nose pouring blood, she’d summoned up an extra burst of _something_ , and the fabric of the air had torn. Giving Steve and Billy a tiny opening to crawl through, into the other side. 

The Upside Down.

It’s spooky, quiet, still in an unnatural way, and Billy’s heart is thudding. It reminds him of having the monster inside him. It reminds him of being a prisoner inside his own body, of watching his hands commit atrocious acts without being able to stop them.

If he doesn’t say something, he’ll collapse. He didn’t realise it would make him relive that time so acutely.

So he comments, as flippantly as he’s able to, on his surroundings. The slithering vines that cover everything. The flakes of dust and debris that fill the air. The unnaturally heavy clouds hanging above their heads.

Steve just rolls his eyes. “You’ve seen it before,” he points out. “You knew what it would be like.”

“I didn’t,” Billy says, too quickly, and then bites his tongue when Steve looks at him sharply.

They’ve been hunting around the rubble of the mall for about ten minutes now, looking for somewhere where Hopper might be hiding out, waiting to be rescued. They’ve been calling for him. But everything stays still and silent, their footsteps - and Billy’s voice - the only sounds.

Every now and then Billy looks back at the place where they came in. It’s a slither of real sunlight, access to the world, a reminder that other places exist.

“I don’t think he’s here,” Steve says.

“Cabin it is, then,” Billy says reluctantly. He doesn’t want to leave the safety of the mall, of that thin slice of the real world. 

Steve looks at him. “Scared, Hargrove?”

“I’d be an idiot not to be,” Billy fires back.

Steve bites his lip. “Yeah,” he says. “Me too.”

They walk towards the mall entrance, smoke swirling around them as they go. As much as Billy had complained about his get-up, he’s glad of the protective gear he’s wearing; even through the handkerchief, breathing is difficult, and the idea of actually touching anything here is… well, disgusting. Wrong. 

They don’t belong here.

“What’s the betting,” he says, as they pass out into the car park, “that the kids didn’t actually ask Mrs Byers about this at all?”

“What do you mean?” Steve says.

Billy shrugs. “She loved Hopper,” he says simply. “When it was Will, there was nothing she wouldn’t do, right? There’s no way she wouldn’t be here if she thought there was a chance of rescuing him. That he was still alive.”

Steve actually stops in his tracks. “Why would they lie about that?”

“Protecting her,” Billy, who has the same instinct around Joyce Byers, says. “She lost him. And we’re expendable.” Then he laughs. “Well, I am, anyway.”

“Shut up,” Steve says. “You’re not expendable. Max would kill you if you died in here. And then she’d kill me.”

Billy feels his cheeks warm up, oddly pleased by the notion.

They walk in silence for an hour or so. It’s a long way on foot from the mall to the Chief’s cabin, but neither of them like the idea of trying to use a car in here. Billy’s not sure it would even work. This isn’t a place where electricity and batteries and modern shit like that operate.

“We should take a break,” Steve says, when at last they’ve reached the edge of town. “It’s another couple of hours into the woods.”

“Don’t be a pussy,” Billy says. “We should keep going. We don’t know what else is out here.”

“Who’s being the pussy?” Steve says meanly. “I’m tired. If anything comes I want to be rested.”

Billy folds his arms. “Fine,” he says tightly. “Five minutes.”

They sit in the middle of the road, away from the worst of the vines; Steve cracks out the water bottles Dustin had packed into a backpack for them. He packed walkies, too, but Steve tested them almost as soon as they got in, and was met with nothing but static.

After a minute or two, Steve says: “I get why you’re scared.”

“No, you don’t,” Billy says. “I’ve been here before. You haven’t.”

There’s a pregnant pause, and then Steve says: “Shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Billy says, embarrassed, and they carry on walking.

The worst part is the way everything is the same. The landscape might change, the buildings, the trees - but it’s all coloured with the same dank blackness, an endless panoramic of dull ghostly nothingness. Billy thinks that maybe if hell exists, it would look like this. Lonely and empty and dreary, with no hope of change, of respite.

In spite of himself, he’s glad Steve is with him.

*

“Tell me about your mom,” Steve says.

“What?” Billy says, startled.

“I’m going crazy,” Steve says. “It’s so goddamn quiet. Tell me about something nice. Tell me about your mom.”

Billy’s cheeks flush with colour, his chest suddenly tight and constricted. He never talks about his mom. Who the fuck would he talk to about her? He says, voice shaking: “What do you want to know?”

Steve gives him a sideways look. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he says uncertainly.

But Billy does want to, suddenly and unexpectedly. “She was pretty,” he says, and he hears El’s voice saying it too, her small hand on his face. “She was really pretty.”

“What did she look like?” Steve asks.

“She had really pretty hair,” Billy remembers, and he finds himself smiling without knowing how it happened. “Long, and blonde, and her eyes were blue—”

“Like yours,” Steve says.

He shrugs. “I guess,” he says. “She used to sing.”

“What did she sing?”

“Anything,” Billy says. “She had hundreds of records. She was always playing them, and singing along to them, and if she couldn’t play them she’d sing anyway. When I got home from school, I always knew if she was home or not, because the windows would be open and you could hear her singing.” He stops abruptly. Too many goddamn memories.

Steve says hesitantly: “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Billy says, just as he had the last time Steve apologised for some stupid bullshit. “Come on, princess. Keep walking.”

“I hate when you call me that,” Steve complains.

Billy laughs. “No, you don’t.”

“I really do,” Steve assures him. Billy just shakes his head.

After a moment or two of silence, he says brusquely: “Come on, _princess_ , keep talking. It’s too fucking quiet not to.”

“Alright, asshole,” Steve says comfortably. “What do you want to talk about?”

*

They walk for a while more. Steve stops to tie his shoelace, and Billy tries to calm the way his heart is beating. He hates being here, out in the dark and the unknown. He hates the way that there’s no wind, so the leaves on the trees all around them don’t move at all. He hates that he can’t hear the slightest sound apart from their trudging footsteps.

“Do you know where we’re going?” he asks Steve.

Steve opens his mouth to answer, and then the demodog attacks.

It’s everything Max described to him: huge and hairless, with twisting limbs and that awful flapping face that opens up into horror. It leaps out of the darkness of the trees, all teeth and noise, like some creature straight from hell, and Billy shouts out a warning—

Steve swings the bat he’s carrying, and there’s a satisfying crunch as the nails studded in the end of it hit the dog’s gaping face.

“ _Run_!” Steve screams, and Billy’s legs obey without a thought, pelting away from the snarling beast. Steve is right behind him, but he hasn’t killed the demodog. Billy can still hear it, racing after them.

Billy swerves as another dog leaps out at him. He doesn’t have a bat, but he does have a crowbar; when they were preparing for the journey, he pointed out the advantages of iron over wood, and now he’s glad of it. He swings the heavy metal rod upwards, and the demodog whines as it’s batted away.

“There are more of them!” he calls breathlessly to Steve, and indeed another three or four of the creatures are jumping into the fray. As one of them heads straight for Billy, he veers in another direction, reaching back to pull Steve behind him.

“Fuck!” Steve exclaims eloquently, and Billy hears another whoosh of the bat, followed by a thud as it hits one of the creatures.

Another demodog leaps straight at Billy’s face, and he skids to a halt as he brings the crowbar crashing down onto it. The blows don’t seem to be doing much damage; the dogs are impaired for a minute or two, withdrawing to shake off the effect of being hit so hard, but then they’re straight back into the fight.

Now that they’re not running anymore, the dogs are everywhere. There’s nowhere to go. No way out.

Sweat is dripping down Billy’s forehead. “Steve,” he says.

The dogs are circling, less aggressive. Because they know it’s over. Billy and Steve are completely surrounded.

“What?” Steve says.

Billy swallows. “I think we’re going to die,” he says.

There’s a silence. Billy bats away a demodog coming too close. Steve says, voice dangerously shaky: “I’m sorry. You should never have come with me.”

“Like I was going to let you come alone,” Billy scoffs. 

“Billy—”

“Steve,” Billy interrupts. He waits while Steve swings the nail-studded bat into another of the creatures. “I’m sorry I hit you. That night, at Mrs Byers' place.”

Steve actually turns a little at that. “What? Why are you even bringing that up?”

“We might not get another chance,” Billy says, speaking fast. The dogs are coming closer, but they’re not attacking anymore. 

He thinks he knows why. Something else is coming.

Steve says: “Thank you for telling me about your mom.”

“Thanks for asking,” Billy says.

“Sorry for being an asshole to you most of the time,” Steve says. He’s obviously realised that the demodogs have stopped their assault as well.

“Don’t be sorry for that,” Billy says, laughing softly. “I like it.”

Steve snorts. “Yeah, well,” he says. “I know. I just figured, since we’re apologising, and all.”

“Jesus, Harrington,” Billy says. “Just because we’re about to die, you don’t have to go mushy on me.”

And then Steve really does turn around, and there’s a clunk as the bat drops out of his hand to the floor. He looks fierce, the handkerchief slipping down his face, his hair wild and untamed. He reaches up and takes off his goggles.

Billy opens his mouth to ask what the hell he thinks he’s doing.

Steve kisses him.

It’s not soft, the way Billy’s imagined it, because of course he _has_ imagined it. It’s hard, thrumming like the desperate beat of their hearts, a fierce bruising kiss that feels like a goodbye. Which is really fucking unfair.

When Steve steps back, Billy can’t speak. He’s not even sure he kissed _back_ , because it was so fast and shocking, but his face slides into a grin anyway.

“Really? _Now_?” he says.

Steve shrugs, a tiny smile making the corners of his mouth twitch. “Well, you said it,” he says. “We might not get another chance.”

That’s when the world explodes, in a dance of fire that bursts through the nothingness, setting everything around them alight.

It’s so bright that Billy can’t see anything, can’t see what’s happening, but the demodogs are roaring, scattering, a ghostly figure rushing at them with arms of flame—

“Oh,” says Steve, and his voice is suddenly filled with delight and wonder. “It’s _Hopper_.”

*

“You’re idiots,” Hopper says. He’s said it several times, on the fast-paced march back to the mall. The closer they get to freedom, the less he sounds like he means it.

“We weren’t going to _leave_ you,” Steve argues. 

Hopper turns murderous eyebrows on him. “You’re kids.”

“Fuck off,” Billy scoffs. “After what we’ve seen? We’re not kids.”

“Well, you should be,” Hopper growls, directing his glare at Billy. “You should get a chance to be kids. You shouldn’t have to deal with this bullshit anymore.”

Billy glares right back. Hopper is nowhere _near_ as intimidating as his dad. “You could just say thank you,” he says.

There’s a silence. “Well,” Hopper grumbles, at last. “Thank you.”

Behind his back, Steve and Billy hold hands, arms swinging a little in the stillness of the Upside Down.


End file.
